THE Ministry of Urban and Rural Development has received an unqualified audit opinion for the financial year ended 31 March 2025, even as the auditor general flagged shortcomings in service delivery, particularly in sanitation.
An unqualified opinion represents the highest level of assurance, indicating that the ministry’s financial statements fairly present its position.
However, auditor general Junias Kandjeke says the reports have unauthorised expenditure.
One main division exceeded its budget by more than N$236 000, while several subdivisions recorded combined overruns exceeding N$5.2 million.
According to Kandjeke, the ministry failed to meet some of its key performance indicators (KPIs).
“Deficiencies were identified in the completeness, accuracy, reliability, validity and usefulness criteria of the KPIs. The targets for both KPIs were not fully achieved during the financial year under review,” says Kandjeke. The ministry aimed to provide 1 639 urban households with access to toilet facilities but achieved only 557. In rural areas, 843 toilets were constructed against a target of 1 000.
In its response, the ministry attributes the shortfalls to administrative and resource constraints.
“Underexpenditure was realised due to vacant positions which could not be filled during or before the end of the financial year,” says Kandjeke.
The ministry has also linked project delays to procurement processes.
According to the report, “late approval of the annual procurement plan in June 2025” meant “procurement requests were not timely initiated” for services such as sewer system and building maintenance.
Beyond performance issues, the auditor general identified weaknesses in internal controls.
“Stocktaking was not conducted at six stock points at the regional offices during the financial year under review,” Kandjeke says.
Despite the challenges, the ministry recorded total actual expenditure of N$1.05 billion.
Ongoing projects include the construction of houses under the mass housing development programme, as well as infrastructure developments at Opuwo, Rundu and Otjiwarongo.
